Hounslow mayor Paul Lynch honoured for support of Gurkhas' residency campaign (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Hounslow mayor Paul Lynch honoured for support of Gurkhas' residency campaign

12:00pm Sunday 1st November 2009 in

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The mayor of Hounlsow has gone a step further in his duties - by flying halfway across the world to visit Nepal.

Councillor Paul Lynch was invited to the south Asian country by the borough’s Gurkhas in recognition of his support for their high-profile fight to be given UK residency.

The Chiswick Riverside ward councillor received flowers and khattas - traditional silk scarves of greeting - when he touched down at Kathmandu for the week-long trip.

A second warm and colourful welcome greeted the mayor on his visit to the town of Pokhara, home to Hounslow Gurkha and Victoria Cross holder Tul Bahadur Pun, whose family made Coun Lynch an honoured guest in their home.

Coun Lynch said: “The reception at Pokhara was so wonderful, a once in a life-time event, such a crowd to turn out to see me.

“It was a far greater crowd than I would ever get in Hounslow, and certainly more flowers. I spent the first hour of my stay flower arranging in my hotel room.”

”Everyone was very generous. Especially the family of Tul Bahadur Pun.

“They entertained me in the most traditional way, and made me an honoured guest in their home.”

Along with flower arranging the mayor spent his week experiencing the sights and sounds of the country - being entertained in people’s homes and interviewed by the Kathmandu Post newspaper.

He also got the chance to view the Himalayan mountains on an aeroplane tour to Mount Everest and from the village of Sarangot, located 1,600m high up a mountainside.

Coun Lynch said: “Words are quite inadequate to describe their magnificence. I knew it would be a wonderful sight but it was so far beyond my expectation.

“Seeing the sun rise at Sarangot, gradually lighting those snow-capped peaks made we wish I could capture in it verse like Wordsworth or Yeats.”

It is estimated that there are currently 500 Gurkhas living in Hounslow.

They include Dharma Tamang, 48, of Standard Road, who travelled to Parliament in April to celebrate a Commons ruling that all Gurkha veterans should have the right to settle in the UK.

To mark his comradeship with the Ghurkas, Tamang, who served in the army for 15 years, acted as mace-bearer at Coun Lynch’s inaugural mass in May.

In a fitting end to the trip Coun Lynch was welcomed back to the country by Ghurkas who presented him with garlands and flowers at the airport.

He said: “It has never been such fun arriving at dull old Heathrow.”